This is my portfolio with about 6 years of experience in product design.My advice is to first be able to tell a good story and attune it to the party that you are in conversation with.Then you need good supporting visual / tangible material. Show process but only when it supports the story of the project, what is more important that it becomes clear through your work what your vision and goals are as a designer.

I am still looking to improve my portfolio for next year, I will use a more distinctive layout with more pages and less and larger photographs.

I am. A bit tired of being fucking broke, granted, but glad to be far, far away from the thankless position of being a "creative". It's disposable trash to anyone up the food chain at most companies, and I'll have no part of it these days.

If only our country allowed you to start your own company based on your own rules and principles, free from the judgement of others ...

Variant, I have to say you just don't present yourself well here. I think it would be difficult for any of us to recommend you for a project management/development role because I would want to work with someone who is so salty. From what I'm reading here I get the sense that you are really hurting. I wish I could convince you to not lash out here and try to build bridges. There are a number of folks here who could use PMs on project or full time basis. This entire forum is like a giant job interview. I know a lot of folks that have gotten jobs here and I've actively recruited a few posters on both full time and contract basis. Please, before you reply, consider turning over a new leaf and try to take advantage of what the forum can do instead of just venting. Think about it.

Variant wrote:3. No one says you have to like my opinion. Everyone's got a different one. We all probably have different favorite colors here. When it comes to portfolios (the topic here), I think the way that they're expected to be presented, and how they're systematically judged is bullshit. By the extension of my first comment above, I think the whole thing has become way too codified, and style in industrial design has been murdered by turning the one area art can find it's way into a product having been diluted to expectation and a bland (yet beautifully rendered ) monolith of samey-same, throwaway products.

Can you please re-read this and see the hypocracy of your words? You’ve answered your own problem time after time. I get that you want to be arty and have your own style, but if you present yourself with the same punk-rock I’m the best everyone sucks but me attitude everywhere else like you do on here, then it isn’t the folio or industry that is the problem. You wouldn’t get a job in any industry anywhere with that attitude. Take a step back, stop lashing out and have a think about why you don’t get hits, rather than blaming everything except yourself.

Lets try and keep all postings civil, lowering ourselves to a form of articulation that is demeaning and belittling has no value creation. several of these posts in different topic groups are starting to resemble what core was in the late 90's when it began, which at times was uncivil and belligerent.

This is a good thread - Ill throw one one out there as well. This is not meant to be negative! Just sharing some of my own struggles through portfolio building over the years...

As a professional, how do you balance showing process?

This is something I've struggled with over the years and have always received feedback that they "want to see more process". "More" meaning what? Company IP/ sketches of new and unreleased work? Material selection? Techpacks? Pattern revisions...etc?

I understand wanting to see ownership of projects, as design/development has a different role per company, but at what point is it too much?

At a certain point during my last transition (for better or worse) I developed a mindset of "if you don't see the value/potential initially than this is not where I belong". I would rather speak to process than show it on a portfolio - Is it foolish to assume that with "XX" years experience it should be obvious that there is a process and that the product and material shown should speak for itself?

I think for XX years out, process should show no matter what. Even if you are now in a higher level role, you probably have done all those patterns, tech packs, mockup, at some point over the XX so have bits and pieces to show.

The biggest difference I think is that compared to a more junior portfolio you don't have to show the depth PER project, since you have the breadth ACROSS a large variety of projects. That is, you can show final samples for projects ABC, tech packsfor project DEF, sketches for projects GHI, etc. and people get that you can do it all.

Just looking at your website quickly, Jim, I have to concur however I'm not seeing lots of process... Only one page with a few doodles, and many of the projects link out to a final product page with no process showing at all. Not sure if you are presenting something a lot different in interviews but the online picture I'm getting is a bit incomplete.

...I've recently done a few updates on my website as well and have tried to communicate the same breadth and depth. Even more tricky, I'm not only doing product, but also graphics, packaging, illustration, etc. sometimes all within one project, sometimes as discrete projects...